People are risking prison by helping their loved ones die because MPs and peers keep ducking the issue, according to a peer campaigning to change the law.

Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill – which is debated in the Lords this week - will make it legal for adults in England and Wales to be given assistance ending their own life, if it is passed by Parliament .

It would apply to those with less than six months to live and any agreement must come from two doctors.

Lord Falconer, who was Justice secretary from 2003 to 2007. said the absence of any law meant that people were taking matters into their own hands.

He said: “The law does not work. The idea that after you’ve said goodbye to your loved one you are then a criminal suspect where you might have to give up your passport, you are waiting to know whether you’re going to be prosecuted is not the right way for the law to deal with the problem.

“The reason the law is forced to deal with it in this way is because Parliament has not addressed the issue of whether or not we should shift, I think in quite a limited way, where the law is now to where the law should be, to reflect what I believe many people in society want.”

Just over two thirds of people are in favour of Lord Falconer’s plans.

A survey by ComRes found that 70 per cent of Britons would support a change in the law under the proposed new rules.

Lord Falconer added: “The law has already broken down in this country. There is a criminal law statute that says you can go to prison for up to 14 years for assisting someone else in suicide.”

The law had been “circumvented by the Director of Public Prosecutions, legitimately” who published guidance on assisted suicide four years ago.

He added: “Nobody, whichever side of the debate you are on wants to prosecute people who are motivated by compassion.

“I believe the right thing for the law to do now is to reflect the way society is dealing with it, as reflected by their views of the DPP, and craft a law that gives people certainty about what the position is in those last few weeks and months of their loved ones.”

The Church of England officially opposes at the plans. But at the weekend the Rev Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, clashing with one of his predecessors Lord Carey of Clifton, who said at the weekend that he now backed the law change.

Lord Falconer rejected criticism from the Church of England, calling it “misguided and incredibly thoughtless” for suggesting that elderly people might be forced into ending their lives.